Super Women in Science by Kelly Di Domenico contains the biographies of women scientists who made outstanding contributions to their fields of study. Starting with the tragic story of Hypatia, born in the year 355, through the first African-American woman in space, Mae Jemison, this book briefly summarizes the lives of women in the light of the times in which they lived. Each chapter summarizes the life of a single woman, listed in chronological order.

Some of the women, like Rachel Carson, are household names. In other cases the author has chosen a less well-known scientist. For example, instead of a biography of primatologist Jane Goodall, Di Domenico introduces us to Birute Galdikas, a woman who studies orangutans in a similar ground-breaking way that Goodall studies chimpanzees. It is fun to learn about someone new.

Most of the women had to struggle against bias to continue working in science. For example, Maria Goeppert-Mayer won the Nobel Prize in 1963 for physics, but had to work as a volunteer because no university would hire her early in her career. Hearing the same setbacks due to gender bias again and again is a bit disheartening, but it does reflect the realities of the times.

Part of the high-quality Women’s Hall of Fame Series, this particular volume does have a few minor flaws. For example, in the second chapter on fossil-hunter Mary Anning, some of the scientific names are not properly capitalized. The list of sources in the back, however, are extremely helpful for children who get excited about the life of one of these women and want to find out more.

Super Women in Science is likely to be inspiring not only children interested in science, but also those interested in history. Although listed as a middle grade book, I think older children will also find it useful.

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 102 pages
Publisher: Second Story Press (January 1, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1896764665
ISBN-13: 978-1896764665

This post was prepared for Nonfiction Monday, a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. (I usually participate in this carnival at my Wrapped in Foil blog.) For more information, stop by Anastasia Suen’s Nonfiction Monday page. This week’s carnival is at Bookish Blather.

Thanks to the publisher for providing this older book for review.

“Our series, and it’s accompanying blog, is committed to making scientists and their careers as well known as celebrities are in our culture. Like you, we aim to inspire and entertain by featuring some of today’s most dynamic living scientists and science stories. Check out our series here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/secretlife/.

…We are currently in the running to win a Webby Award (think the Emmys but for web content!) in the prestigious category of ‘Best Documentary Series.’ We are neck and neck with the reknown (sic) filmmaker David Lynch. We know winning this Webby would mean our series could reach scores and scores of aspiring scientists

We ask that you help us reach this goal by sharing the following link on your blog that will allow science fans to vote for our series: http://www.youtube.com/webby?x=documentaryseries.”

Now it is up to you. Take a look at the series. If you like it, consider helping them get publicity by voting. If you follow the link, it will ask you to register. Once you register, an e-mail will be sent to the address you provide. As a heads up, the link provided in the e-mail will take you to the Webby home page. To get back to the voting page, click on “OnLine Film and Video” in the tabs at the top, and then when all the options come up, look for “Documentary:  Series.”

I didn’t find a exact deadline for voting, but it looks the the awards are given out in the first part of June.

Scientists as celebrities? What do you think?

Do you think you might want to study ecology? Take a look at this well-written page about HOW DO YOU BECOME AN ECOLOGIST? by Whit Gibbons at the University of Georgia.

You might want to visit the Ecological Society of America website for more career profiles, and more about ecology as a career, as well.

Do you know someone who wants to become an ecologist?

How a dissertation defense (in science) goes down

This is a rare glimpse into the hoops one has to jump through to become a scientist. I applaud her bravery.

Congratulations, Dr. Lee!

Jane Goodall is an extremely interesting scientist to study, because she came to science by a route that was not at all traditional.

Jane Goodall was born in London, England in 1934, which was shortly before the start of World War II. During the war she went to the countryside to stay with her grandmother. Her father went to fight in the war. After the war, her mother and father got a divorce and she stayed in the country where she learned about nature and studied animals. She also read books about far away Africa and dreamed of one day being able to visit.

Once Jane had finished school, she moved back to London and trained to become a secretary. When she had the opportunity to make a trip to Africa, she remembered her early aspirations and jumped at it. She like Africa so much, she got a job as a typist in the city of Nairobi.

By luck Dr, Louis Leakey, the famous anthropologist, and his wife Mary were also in Nairobi at the time. Jane went to meet him, and made a favorable impression. Before long, Jane Goodall was traveling with the Leakeys looking for fossils.

Louis Leakey had the idea that someone should study chimpanzees in the wild, which had never been done before. He thought Jane should give it a try. It turns out, although she had no degree and no formal training in how to study animal behavior, Jane Goodall was a natural. She didn’t mind the danger and difficult conditions, and she was soon making remarkable observations.

Eventually she did go back to school to obtain her doctoral degree at Cambridge University. Now she is a world-renowned scientist and leading expert on chimpanzee behavior. This shows what a sense of adventure, willingness to work hard, and a little good timing can bring you.

Dr. Jane Goodall is also an outspoken conservationist. She started Root and Shoots, an organization that encourages people, particularly young people, to help animals and the environment.

I have reviews of related children’s books at Wrapped In Foil today.

And if you are interested in chimp behavior as it relates to ants, try this post at Wild About Ants.

This is a video of an interview with Dr. Letisha McLaughlin, an astronomer at NC State. She talks about how she became an astronomer and how she was inspired when her mother got her a telescope.

I was also able to find this video tribute to Women Astronomers in History: Telescope Women in History.

Please Note: One of the images in this video is a star map overlaid with a drawing of a woman with one bare breast, which some people may find offensive. Please preview this video for suitability for your children.

Finally, here is a video about Women in Astronomy from NASA, which begins with a recent history of the field.

Do you ever wonder whether all the science enrichment you do as a parent really matters? Well, parent involvement made a huge difference to Dr. Dale Emeagwali. As a Black, she felt her teachers were not supportive of her interest in math and science when she was growing up in the 1960’s. She says she became a scientist because her parents did simple science experiments with her and her two brothers at home. Her father also encouraged their interest in math by showing them tricks with numbers and having math books available. She fully credits her parent’s efforts for her success.

Dr. Emeagwali is now a Lecturer in Biology at Morgan State University. She has a PhD from Georgetown University in Microbiology, and was honored with National Technical Association’s “1996 Scientist of the Year” award for for her contributions to the fields of microbiology, molecular biology and biochemistry.

In the book Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits the authors agree that “an important value of informal environments for learning science is being accessible to all.” Although it covers a lot of topics, one I thought was interesting was that “…in the retrospective studies of what launched female scientists down their career paths. These women often cite particular individuals or contexts outside schools as significant influences on their pursuit of science careers.”

Dr. Emeagwali continues to encourage informal science learning for children. For example, while at the University of Minnesota she worked with the Science Museum of Minnesota on the annual African-American Science Day there.

For a particularly moving post about the Black scientists killed in Alabama last week, visit The Black History Month Post I never wanted to write at Urban Science Adventures.

For more information:

Dale Emeagwali Biography at Answers.com

Dale Emeagwali honored as `Scientist of the Year’

Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits is available for reading online for free at:

Why was I poking around the site? Looking for the Free Science DVD’s, of course. I ended up downloading the “Seeing, Hearing and Smelling the World” pdf instead.
Hope you find something useful as well.

I hope the stories of these diverse young women scientists are an inspiration.

1. What is a zoo docent?

A zoo docent provides education and information to the public at the zoo. Docents conduct tours, offer “discovery stations” (displays that offer information about a specific topic), and run “animal encounters” (specially designated education animals have contact with the public).  Docents may also offer these educational situations outside the zoo, taking zoo animals and artifacts to schools or other organizations in order to teach a program, allow others to see animals they may not normally encounter, and to offer perspectives on conservation and species survival.

At our zoo, the docent position is a volunteer position.  Some zoos do hire docents, sometimes full time, but usually part time and seasonally.

2. What made you decide to become a zoo docent?

For me it was a toss up.  I looked at Aquarium work for  a while.  Because my daughter introduced me to marine invertebrates, I was very excited about the possibility of working at the touch tank at our local aquarium.  I’ve actually trained for that as well, but then moved to complete zoo docent training after learning the extent of the zoo program.  That they also had my favorite animal being trained as an education animal, a binturong, also influenced my decision originally.

3. How did you become a zoo docent? (What kind of classes did you need to take, etc.)

The zoo offers docent training.  It’s a several month course in two parts.  Part one is zoology, animal behavior, conservation and zoo operations.  It’s rather like going to college in that you have a number of chapters to go through, there are quizzes, labs, and field work, and then a final exam, which you must receive 100% on in order to progress to stage two.   Stage two is education and public contact training, and covers actual teaching methods, as well as allowing docents to explore the different programs available at the zoo and chose those he/she is most interested in working in.

4. Where do you work?

I’m just completing phase two training at the Rio Grande Zoo, part of the Albuquerque BioPark

5. What is the most exciting part of your job? What’s the worst part, if anything?

The most exciting part for me is the continued opportunity to learn.  I find out something interesting and new about various animals every day, and getting up close and personal with some of the animals has inspired me to continue learning.  One of the things we hear at the zoo often in terms of conservation is that people save what they love.  The more experience I have with the animals, the more I learn in order to educate others and help them love these animals, the more I find I love them myself.   I find myself interested in and caring deeply for animals I’d usually give little thought to at the zoo.  Animals which, in the past, I’d pretty much walked past and not thought terribly much about.

It’s rather like falling in love every day.

The worst part for me is having to deal with zoo guests who tease the animals.   It’s so frustrating to me to see individuals… and sometimes groups of people… who go to zoos to show off to each other and have so little regard for the animals.  I try to keep focus on the fact that perhaps these individuals need the education the most, but there are some people who come to the zoo totally unwilling to learn.

6. Do you wear a special uniform?

Yes, docents at the BioPark are required to wear certain colors in their clothing, and to wear a special vest.  At our facility, the pattern of the vest tells what area of the BioPark you are a docent in (there are separate vests for zoo docents, aquarium docents, garden docents, and beach docents).  There are also solid colored vests for other volunteer positions, like solid blue vests for touch tank/ shark ray encounter volunteers.

7. How is a zoo docent different from a zookeeper? How do you become a zookeeper?

Zoo keepers have much more contact with the animals.  Only zoo keepers are involved in animal training:  safety training, animal encounter training, or any of the  enrichment training offered the animals at the zoo.   Zoo keepers are inside the animal enclosures doing the cleaning, bringing in enrichment items, or teaching the animals about their new environment when they change habitats.

Being a zoo keeper requires college education in zoology and a lot more training than zoo docents receive.  It’s usually the zoo keepers you see in uniform at the zoo.  At our zoo they wear khaki slacks and khaki shirts with the BioPark Logo.  Zoo Keeping is a paid position.

*8. As a mom of a scientist, do you have any advice for encouraging children interested in science?

I believe that all people, rather kids or adults, are naturally attracted to some aspect of science.  The problem is that they often don’t get exposure or believe that science is somehow “high brow” and either beyond their capabilities or socially unacceptable.  But with exposure, people realize that there is a broad spectrum of science, not only in the variety of scientific disciplines, but in the level of commitment and education you need in order to “do science”.

Science doesn’t just take place in the laboratory, and you don’t need a PhD to “do science”.  Kids can go to zoos, science centers and aquariums.  They can participate in conservation efforts, or do volunteer work with groups in their community.  If the parents, teachers, and volunteer organizers in the community are all saying “science is fun” then kids will respond… because science IS fun.

I think right now people make the mistake of looking at science as a job, and it isn’t.  Sure, some people get paid for “doing science”, but for the most part science is a way of looking at the world.  It’s a way that induces a sense of wonder, a curiosity, and a willingness to learn.

The best thing I think any parent can do is to offer exposure and to continue to learn themselves.  Take the kids to the zoo.  Don’t just walk through it.  If the kids are interested in a specific animal, learn something about that animal together. Take the kids to science centers. If the kids enjoy a specific activity or display, find out more.  Keep going back.  Once you’ve seen a zoo, aquarium, or science center, you haven’t seen all there is to see.  You can go back over and over and over and learn something new, see a new animal behavior, find something new in a revolving display, or experience something new in an activity you’ve done before.

Expose kids to the world:  Take them to places of natural wonders, to places that expose them to different environments and different cultures.  Being open minded and fostering an open mind to learning experiences helps kids not only in science, but in all domains of their lives.

And don’t be afraid to bring science home.  Kids don’t need expensive lab equipment to find out what soils work best for different plants.  you can do science with plastic baggies and a 10 cent seed packet.    A while back the kids were doing DNA extractions from fruit with stuff everyone has around the house, which is something I’d guess most people would think could only occur in a lab with specialized equipment.   There’s a certain “wow, that’s cool” factor involved in something like that, and it’s naturally attractive to kids.

Most of the time I don’t think we need to encourage kids to be interested in science, but rather we need to stop discouraging them.

Thank you so much for all your sage advice, Kate.

Now, who knows what a binturong is?

Visit Kate’s blog at Adventures of a Free Range Urban Primate.